For most people the word tantra seems synonymous with sex. I’ve spoken a lot about what tantra is beyond its misperceived sexual connotations.
But to say that sex has nothing to do with tantra would be inaccurate. Tantra has something to do with everything. Everything. So sex is just as part of the process as eating a meal, meditating, or going to temple.
Indulge me for a bit and think about sex abstractly. It’s a lust for another half, an act of complete acceptance of another being, and then taking that being into yourself. You aren’t thinking of the “world” as you know it, the city streets, the economy, television. If the sex is any good, all of your attention is brought directly into the moment. Feeling, experiencing your senses, being utterly present within yourself. Marveling in sheer adoration. And if it’s with someone you love, then there’s nowhere else you would rather be. This is how a tantrik yogi lives life.
These are all qualities we should cultivate every moment of our lives. We should never want to be anywhere else other than where we are. A tantrik’s would is present within his senses, not surrendered to the abstract notions of time and space. To a tantrik, it is the common man’s world that is abstract. The “lofty realms of Nirvana”, on the other hand, are simple and present.
In the tantrik worldview, your experience of existence is the sexplay of Shiva and Shakti (the goddess). Shakti is everything you experience: smells, sounds, feelings, thoughts, sights, ideas, inspiration, fire, water, etc. Shiva is the thing within, that sense of self, that experiences everything.
Therefore a tantrik yogi seeks to experience this at all times before transcending that final duality into non-duality. Namaste.
